In his best-selling 2011 book entitled “Thinking Fast and Slow”, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman elucidates the contrast between two modes of human thought-processing: fast and slow thinking.1 Fast thinking is characterized by rapid and automatic reaction to a simulation or problem, while slow thinking involves a measured and analytical response. This dichotomy epitomises the clash between clinicians and basic scientists on the enigma of anaesthetic neurotoxicity.2 Based on their clinical practise that anaesthetics do not overtly produce neurocognitive deficits, the clinician’s viewpoint relies on instinct and experience, while the scientist’s viewpoint is based on a deliberate analysis of experimental data and its logical extrapolation to the clinical setting.
Recent Posts
- SmartTots and the Power of Scientific Public–Private Partnerships with the US Food and Drug Administration
- A Scoping Review of the Mechanisms Underlying Developmental Anesthetic Neurotoxicity
- 2025 Annual Meeting, presented by the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) and the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA), March 20 – 23, 2025, Honolulu, HI
- Exposure to Operative Anesthesia in Childhood and Subsequent Neurobehavioral Diagnoses: A Natural Experiment Using Appendectomy
- Long-term outcomes of early exposure to repeated general anaesthesia in children with cystic fibrosis (CF-GAIN): a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled phase 4 trial. Claire Elizabeth Wainwright, et al. June 2024